Chapter Three: The Secret He Buried
For several seconds, I couldn't understand the words Daniel had just spoken.
Someone killed my father.
The sentence repeated inside my head, over and over again.
My father had been dead for three years.
Three years of believing his death was tragic but natural.
Three years of visiting his grave.
Three years of missing his voice, his laugh, the way he used to call me his little girl even after I became a grown woman.
And now my husband was standing in front of me, telling me that my father had been murdered.
I stared at him.
"Who?"
Daniel's lips parted.
No answer came.
"Who killed my father?"
He looked toward the window.
"Daniel!"
His eyes finally met mine.
"I can't tell you."
My chest tightened.
"You can't tell me?"
"It's not that simple."
"It is simple!"
I grabbed the marriage certificate from the table and held it up.
"You've been hiding a wife from me for seven years. You knew something about my father's death. You've lied to me about everything, and now you're telling me you know who murdered him."
I threw the certificate onto the floor.
"What could possibly be complicated about telling me who killed my father?"
Daniel's face was filled with anguish.
"Because if I tell you, you won't be safe."
I laughed bitterly.
"Safe?"
I stepped closer.
"I haven't been safe since the day I married you."
He reached for my hand.
I pulled away.
"Don't touch me."
He lowered his hand.
"Emily, please."
"No."
I couldn't look at him anymore.
The man I had trusted more than anyone in the world suddenly felt like a stranger wearing my husband's face.
"Tell me about Vanessa."
His expression tightened.
"What about her?"
"Everything."
"There's nothing—"
"Don't lie to me again."
He went silent.
I walked to the sofa and sat down.
"If you want me to believe anything you say from this moment forward, you start at the beginning."
Daniel remained standing.
"The beginning was a mistake."
"What was?"
"My marriage to Vanessa."
"Why did you marry her?"
He looked down.
"Her father had a business partnership with mine."
I frowned.
"You told me her father was your employer."
"He was."
"So why did you marry his daughter?"
Daniel took a slow breath.
"Because he forced me."
I stared at him.
"Forced you?"
"He knew my family was struggling financially. My father's company was collapsing. Vanessa's father offered to save it."
"And the price was marrying his daughter?"
Daniel nodded.
"I didn't love her."
"But she loved you."
"Yes."
"And you married her anyway."
"I thought I could make it work."
My stomach turned.
"And then you met me."
His eyes softened.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Six months after the wedding."
I remembered the first time we met.
A coffee shop.
A spilled drink.
Daniel apologizing so profusely that I laughed.
He had told me that day that he had never met anyone who could make him smile so quickly.
I had believed every word.
"Did you tell me you were married?"
Daniel closed his eyes.
"No."
I felt tears burning my eyes.
"You let me fall in love with you without telling me."
"I was going to."
"When?"
"I don't know."
"Exactly."
He looked ashamed.
I stood.
"Why didn't Vanessa leave you?"
"Because she knew why I married her."
"Then why couldn't you leave her?"
Daniel's expression changed.
There it was.
The question I'd been asking since I first saw her name on his phone.
Why couldn't my husband leave her?
"Because of the contract."
"What contract?"
"The agreement between our families."
I stared at him.
"Explain."
"If I left Vanessa, her father would destroy my family."
"Your father is dead."
"He wasn't when we married."
I frowned.
Daniel continued.
"Her father controlled everything. The company. The accounts. The properties. My father's debts."
"And now?"
"Now Vanessa controls them."
I understood.
"That's why you can't leave her."
"It's more complicated."
"How?"
Daniel looked away.
"Because Vanessa isn't the person you should be afraid of."
A chill ran down my spine.
"Who should I be afraid of?"
He didn't answer.
My phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
Stop asking Daniel questions.
I stared at the screen.
Another message arrived.
You are getting too close.
Then a photograph.
My father's grave.
Taken from a distance.
The date stamp showed that the photograph had been taken that afternoon.
My blood ran cold.
Someone had been watching me.
I showed Daniel.
His face changed instantly.
"Where did you get this?"
"Someone sent it."
"Give me your phone."
"No."
"Emily, give me the phone."
"Why?"
"Because I need to see the number."
I handed it to him.
He stared at the screen.
Then his face became pale.
"You know who it is."
It wasn't a question.
Daniel looked at me.
"I know who has access to this number."
"Who?"
He hesitated.
"Vanessa."
I felt something inside me snap.
"You told me she wasn't the person I should fear."
"She isn't."
"Then why does she have my number?"
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
He shook his head.
"I'm telling you the truth."
I walked away.
"Emily."
I turned.
Daniel's expression was desperate.
"Please trust me."
I almost laughed.
"Trust you?"
I pointed at the marriage certificate on the floor.
"You've been married to another woman for eight years."
I pointed at the photograph of him with Vanessa.
"You cheated on me."
Then I pointed at my phone.
"Someone is watching me because of secrets involving my dead father."
My voice cracked.
"And you want me to trust you?"
Daniel lowered his head.
"No."
He looked at me.
"I want you to survive."
That sentence stayed with me long after he left the room.
That night, I didn't sleep.
I waited until Daniel was in the shower before I opened his office.
I'd been inside the room hundreds of times.
I'd never searched it.
Tonight was different.
I opened drawers.
Nothing.
Cabinets.
Nothing.
Then I noticed a locked compartment beneath his desk.
My heart started racing.
I searched the room for a key.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
Daniel always kept an old silver key on his keychain.
I had never known what it opened.
I found the key hanging beside the front door.
My hands shook as I brought it to the lock.
It fit.
The compartment opened.
Inside was a stack of documents.
I pulled them out.
The first was a business agreement.
The second was a bank statement.
The third was a photograph.
My father.
Standing beside Daniel.
And Vanessa's father.
All three men were smiling.
I stared at the date.
The photograph had been taken four days before my father died.
Underneath it was a handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, Daniel knows where the evidence is.
My heart pounded.
Evidence of what?
I searched through the remaining papers.
Then I found a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
Emily.
I froze.
Why would my father have left something for me in Daniel's office?
I tore it open.
Inside was a letter.
My father's handwriting.
I recognized it immediately.
My hands trembled as I unfolded the paper.
Emily,
If you're reading this, something has gone terribly wrong.
I stopped.
Tears filled my eyes.
I continued.
There are things about Daniel you don't know.
My heart sank.
I wanted to tell you before you married him.
I couldn't breathe.
But by then, it was too late.
The letter continued.
Daniel is not the man you think he is.
I covered my mouth.
Then I read the final lines.
He didn't marry you for love.
My knees nearly gave out.
I sat in Daniel's chair.
The letter slipped slightly in my hands.
There was one final paragraph.
If Daniel ever tells you he loves you, remember this: I begged him not to marry my daughter.
My heart stopped.
My daughter.
What did that mean?
I reread the sentence.
I begged him not to marry my daughter.
Then I noticed something beneath the paragraph.
A second sheet had been attached.
I pulled it free.
It was a copy of a legal document.
At the top was my father's name.
Below it was Daniel's.
And beneath that was another name.
Vanessa.
I scanned the document.
My stomach twisted.
It was an agreement transferring ownership of a substantial portion of my father's company.
To Daniel.
Effective on the day of my marriage.
I read the date.
The exact date Daniel and I got married.
He hadn't married me because he loved me.
He had married me because marrying me gave him access to my father's company.
I stood abruptly.
The office door opened.
Daniel was standing there.
His hair was wet.
His expression froze when he saw the documents in my hands.
Neither of us spoke.
Then his eyes fell on the letter.
He whispered my name.
"Emily."
I held it up.
"You married me for my father's company."
He stepped forward.
"Let me explain."
"No."
"Please."
"Did you?"
He stopped.
I stared into his eyes.
"Did you marry me because my father promised you his company?"
Daniel said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
"You used me."
"No."
"You lied to me."
"I loved you."
"Then why did my father write that he begged you not to marry me?"
Daniel's face went white.
I watched him carefully.
"What did my father know?"
He closed his eyes.
"Everything."
"Everything about what?"
He looked at me.
"About Vanessa."
I shook my head.
"No. There's more."
He didn't answer.
"Tell me."
He looked toward the letter.
Then back at me.
"Your father discovered what Vanessa's family was really doing."
"What were they doing?"
Daniel's voice dropped.
"Money laundering."
I froze.
"Your father found evidence."
"Evidence of what?"
"Illegal transfers. Hidden accounts. False companies."
"And you?"
"I helped him."
My heart pounded.
"Then why did he say you weren't the man I thought you were?"
Daniel looked away.
"Because I betrayed him."
I felt sick.
"How?"
"I gave Vanessa's father the location of the evidence."
The room spun.
"You did what?"
"I thought I was protecting my family."
"And my father?"
Daniel's eyes filled with tears.
"He found out."
"What happened?"
He swallowed.
"I went to his house the night before he died."
"Why?"
"To get the evidence back."
"And?"
Daniel's voice broke.
"Your father was alive when I left."
I stared at him.
"Who came after you?"
He didn't answer.
"Daniel."
He looked at me.
"I don't know."
My phone suddenly rang.
Both of us jumped.
Unknown number.
I answered.
"Hello?"
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
"Emily, don't believe him."
My heart stopped.
"Who is this?"
The caller laughed softly.
Then she said:
"Ask your husband why he lied about being the last person to see your father alive."
The line went dead.
I slowly lowered the phone.
Daniel was staring at me.
"Who was that?"
I looked at him.
"I don't know."
Then my phone buzzed again.
A new message.
This time, it contained a photograph.
My father.
Alive.
Standing outside his house.
And beside him was Daniel.
But the timestamp on the photograph was three years after my father's supposed death.
I stared at the image until my hands went numb.
My father had supposedly been dead for three years.
Yet the photograph had been taken yesterday.
